That's what one paramedic says of the targeting of ambulance crews. Criminals are after phones and wallets along with medical equipment and drugs. We ride along with a Cape Town crew in a Red Zone.Paramedic Papinki Lebelo waits for a police escort before responding to an emergency call-out in the Red Zone neighborhood of Philippi East in Cape Town, South Africa.
"They don't care if you're there to help an old lady who's having a heart attack," says Victor Labuschagne, a colleague of Lebelo's who, while attending to patients in the past few years. He credits his Kevlar vest with stopping the bullet that might otherwise have killed him."There's no respect anymore. And it impacts how we can treat our patients. We call it 'load and go.' We just get the patient and get out of there as fast as we can.
"People are so angry when we turn up," he says."Often they've been waiting for hours and now the patient's dead. They needed an ambulance and it wasn't there." By half-past 8, Lebelo and Faltein are both scrolling through WhatsApp messages on their phones. The radio is now playing 1990s hip-hop. Finally, at 8:50 p.m., nearly an hour-and-a-half after they first arrived at the station, a police escort appears. Lebelo pulls out into the road and follows the vehicle to a nearby house. They find the patient, help her into the ambulance and test her vital signs before departing for the nearest hospital.The night continues in fits and starts.